Can you imagine The Apprentice without Lord Sugar? The grumpy boss has sat in that chair for every single series in the UK, but if we lived elsewhere in the world it could be so, so different...

We're not even talking about Donald Trump, who helmed the US version of The Apprentice until deciding that running for President was somehow more important (though new reports suggest he still found time to make derogatory comments to the candidates at every opportunity).

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We can all agree that we'd rather have Lord Sugar as a boss than The Donald, but what about the international options? We've ranked them from most to least undesirable boss.

(But let's be clear, we'd probably rather not join any of them.)

9. FLAVIO BRIATORE - The Apprentice Italy

The Apprentice Italy aired two seasons - one in 2012 and one in 2014 - and you can't deny it had a very interesting host in Flavio Briatore. Flavio has an Apprentice-worthy backstory, having failed school twice before getting a diploma in the lowest grades and working as a ski instructor and insurance salesman.

But let's be honest, there are a few little warning signs that might put you off applying for a job with him. His first restaurant closed due to debt, but more importantly, he was convicted of various fraud charges in the 1980s including rigged gambling games. He never went to prison, but only because he exiled himself and was eventually granted amnesty. It was while he was a fugitive - a fugitive - that he set up his successful Benetton franchises before he began managing a Formula 1 racing team. He later had to resign following accusations of conspiracy and race-fixing. He was banned indefinitely, but said he wouldn't be returning to F1 when his ban was overturned.

Also, he just so happens to be the owner of Mayfair restaurant Cipriani's, he used to be part-owner and chairman of QPR, and he fathered a daughter with Heidi Klum before she got together with Seal (who adopted the baby). So, erm, quite a life then.

Again, the Dutch version of The Apprentice wasn't exactly a runaway success, airing a season in 2005 and another in 2011. Both were hosted by Bram Moskowicz but maybe it didn't come back for a third series because in 2010 the lawyer, who has represented clients like controversial politician Geert Wilders and footballer Robin Van Persie, was found to have evaded over €1m in income taxes. He was also disbarred in 2012. So… erm. Yeah.

It's been a case of ups and downs for Terry Serepisos, who hosted The Apprentice New Zealand in 2010. After starting with Italian menswear and nightclub businesses, he struck gold in property development and was also credited with getting New Zealand into the 2010 World Cup (because he owned the football club Wellington Phoenix). Unfortunately, a year after The Apprentice, the financial crisis hit and he was declared bankrupt, owing more than $200m. Very unfortunate. (Terry was discharged of bankruptcy in 2014.)

Roberto Justus has hosted seven series of The Apprentice in Brazil, plus a special All-Stars series. He's certainly got an impressive background - after starting out in advertising, he went on to found one of the biggest communication networks in Brazil and Latin America. But he also married one of the candidates on The Apprentice, Ana Paula Siebert, whom he met on the 2009 series. Can you imagine if Lord Sugar got hitched to one of the budding entrepreneurs on our series?

Incidentally, Roberto also bloody loves doing a bit of telly - as well as The Apprentice, he's hosted his own talk show and Power Couple (about famous couples). And, um, he also hosts the Brazilian version of The Farm which is currently coming into its NINTH SERIES (Roberto's only been presenting it since last year, though). Who do you reckon is the Brazilian Rebecca Loos?

If you're looking for wealth from your potential boss, you could do an awful lot worse than going on The Apprentice Russia with Vladimir Potanin (although sorry, you've kind of missed your chance - he hosted the show back in 2006 and 2007). He's certainly packing some cash, with Forbes valuing him at $13.5 billion. And he has two luxury motor yachts, which is a good enough sign for us.

We're not quite sure exactly what he does to make all that money - he owns the conglomerate that run's Russia's mining and energy companies, basically - but we do know he's fluent in three languages, is the chairman of the board of the Russian State Hermitage art museum, and he was the deputy prime minister of Russia in 1996-1997. He's even buddies with Vladimir Putin. (Imagine. What a coincidence. Expressionless face emoji.) They've played ice hockey together and everything.

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4. MARK BOURIS - The Apprentice Australia

Mark only hosted one series of the regular Apprentice in Australia but he also did four seasons of a celebrity version, so if you're looking to network, he might be the boss for you. He's actually not got many major controversies behind him either; he started out as the founder of Wizard Home Loans and basically got famous by appearing in their adverts. He sold the company in 2004 for $500m (pocket money, right?) and now is the chairman of another finance-y type company, Yellow Brick Road (he is also the board member of the Sydney Roosters rugby league team).

He seems like a pretty solid sort of fellow to work for from our rudimentary research, but mortgages aren't exactly the most exciting thing in the world, are they? It's no plumbing business or nail-file company. (Also, Yellow Brick Road apparently didn't meet its targets this year. Whoops.)

3. TONY FERNANDES - The Apprentice Asia

Now Tony - who hosted the only season of The Apprentice Asia in 2013 - has a backstory to rival Lord Sugar and his back-of-a-van aerials: he used to join his mum shilling Tupperware at Tupperware parties. He's clearly a stunning businessman: after cutting his teeth in the music biz with jobs at Virgin Records and Warner Music, he bought the struggling government airline AirAsia and turned it into Malaysia's first budget airline, breaking even and clearing its debts after just ONE YEAR.

He also owned a F1 team for a while, became a majority shareholder in QPR and owns the hotel chain Tune Hotels (there are a fair few in the UK, if you want to check them out). He's even got a CBE for promoting commercial and educational links between Malaysia and the UK. Not a bad guy to work for, we wager.

("Tokyo" comes from Mosima Sexwale's childhood love of karate, while Sexwale is disappointingly pronounced Sech-WAH-leh, where the x is pronounced like the ch in loch.)

Tokyo Sexwale is a huge name in South Africa; he was imprisoned on Robben Island (the same place as Nelson Mandela) for 13 years after taking part in anti-apartheid activities. He even ended up marrying one of his paralegals, though they divorced in 2014.

Since being released, Tokyo's been active in politics and even considered running for president (though he eventually backed down and supported Jacob Zuma instead). As for his business interests, he owns a company interested in the mining and energy sectors (including DIAMOND MINING!) and has another company that does, erm, investing and things (admittedly we're not the most business-minded of folk).

But our favourite things about Tokyo as a potential boss are a) that his catchphrase on The Apprentice was: "You're dismissed," which seems ever so gentle; and b) that he couldn't choose between the two candidates in the final so just went ahead and hired both of them. We like those odds.

1. MARTHA STEWART - The Apprentice: Martha Stewart

Admittedly, there are plenty of things to count against Martha as a potential boss. For one thing, she went to prison after pleading guilty to felony charges of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding and making false statements to federal investigators. In fact, she came out of prison in March 2005, and by September, she was hosting a spin-off of The Apprentice. Some of it was even filmed at her home because she was still under house arrest. Seriously.

Shall we just look at this as a clear ability to bounce back? Martha's certainly built up a huge empire, from television to books to her own magazine to all blooming sorts. And we have to say, she sounds like quite a nice boss, all the federal charges and imprisonment aside.

Her spin-off of The Apprentice focused on businesses to do with media, cooking, entertaining, design and the like, and instead of the classic: "You're fired!" she went for the much more well-meaning: "You just don't fit in." She even sent unlucky candidates a goodbye letter. Also, we can imagine she always has cake - now that's the kind of boss we can get on board with.